Small but ample market set to open

Despite its small size, the Grandview Avenue Farmers Market will produce a variety of shopping opportunities for visitors this year.

The market opens Saturday, July 1, and will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through Oct. 28 in the parking lot between 1371 and 1391 Grandview Ave.

"We expect to have between eight and 10 vendors each week, and we'll have a good mix of items for sale," said market manager Marcy Musson of the Pearl Alley Growers' Association.

"There will be produce, cut flowers, jams and jellies and we plan to offer some craft vendors as well," she said.

Three new vendors will participate, Musson said.

Ulmer Family Farms of Glenford will offer beef, pork, poultry and eggs; Columbus-based Doris Mae's Bakery will sell homemade bread and baked goods; and Mayhem Foods will have its line of sweet and spicy mustard.

Live music will be featured throughout the market season.

Several one-time events are planned throughout the season, Musson said.

Vendors will give out samples of their products Aug. 12 on Farmers Sample Day, and visitors to the market will receive a free apple on Sept. 16, dubbed Apple Day.

On Lemonade Day, July 15, youngsters will be able to make and sell their own lemonade, Musson said.

That day also will feature the first appearance at the market by a new Grandview-based group.

Boomerang Bags Columbus is a local chapter of a worldwide effort to encourage people to use sustainable alternatives to plastic bags.

The local effort is led by Grandview resident Kristen Boyd.

"It's an effort that got started in Australia," she said.

"The idea is to make shopping bags out of materials and fabrics that are durable and distribute the bags in your community so that people can continue to use them when they are shopping instead of plastic bags.

"I saw a documentary about the project and thought it was a great grassroots effort we could get started here in the Grandview area," Boyd said. "It's a way to help reduce the number of plastic bags that are usually used once, then just thrown away and make their way to a landfill."

Boyd and a group of local volunteers have been working over the past few months to make several hundred bags.

"We'll be passing them out, free of charge, at the farmers market," she said.

The bags have been sewn using T-shirts, curtains, sheets and other donated materials, Boyd said.

For more information about the Columbus chapter of Boomerang Bags, visit facebook.com/boomerangbagscbus.